Master Mentor #3...

Friday – January 25, 2008 – Chapter 2
In today’s reading, CS tackled a couple of questions that would arise from his previous chapter. He dealt with the questions of “Isn’t what you call Moral Law simply our herd instinct and hasn’t it been developed just like our other instinct?” and “Isn’t what you call the Moral Law just a social convention, something that is put into us by education?” To which in both cases, CS answers “no.”
I think what I like about this chapter is twofold. First, CS is very concrete with his explanations. He listed each of those questions and then went about to answer them. But in the midst of his answering, he used very concrete illustrations that made it easier to understand what he was driving at. I’ve read some theology and philosophy books that were brilliant. But in the midst of the reading, I have often thought to myself “I don’t really get what he’s saying here.” And thought that an illustration of some sort would have been incredibly helpful to “getting it.” But none was found. CS isn’t that way. When he states his case, he includes several illustrations to help drive home the point.
Second, CS tackles the issue head on. In the previous chapter, CS states some truth that would be very much debated in some circles (although not in this circle that I find myself in… made up of me, myself and I). But in some circles, there would be some debate. This chapter provides further discussion on that point before moving on. I feel that CS needs to establish that chapter in order to build on it and it would have been easy to leave out chapter 2, assume that the reader got it, understands it, agrees with it and is ready to move on. But he doesn’t. He goes back and revisits the question and attempts to make his “foundation more firm.”
There wasn’t a great deal of new material in this chapter. I found CS further building his case.

Jim